Is it possible you and I have never fully used our eyes before?
What if we’ve been looking at the world around us, the people around us, even ourselves, but we’ve never really seen before?
When Adam and Eve rebelled against God at the very beginning, the Scriptures teach that their eyes were “opened” and they “knew they were naked” (Genesis 3:7). It almost sounds as if previously they’d been duped—kept in the dark and naïve, like the emperor with no clothes.
Something happened to their vision, yes. But it wasn’t a good thing. Before the fall, Adam and his wife were both completely naked before each other, and they were able to see each other with eyes of pure love. This is what every human heart craves: to be completely seen and completely loved.
But Adam and Eve’s sin opened their eyes in a way that took their God-given ability to see each other and turned it into a threat.
So where once Adam’s eyes upon Eve confirmed her beauty, worth, dignity, and goodness as a whole woman (and she felt it), now his eyes were prone to discontentment, greed, covetousness, idolatry, and lust (and she felt it).
What else could she now do before him but cover herself?
Like Adam and Eve, our eyes are opened to sin.
When we look at men and women made in His image, our opened-to-sin eyes see types, temptation, shapes, body parts, obstacles, objects for selfish gratification, or threats to our peace and happiness.
In this light, it’s clear that the stuff under pride is the same as the stuff under insecurity, the stuff under idolizing is the same as the stuff under loathing, and the stuff under lust is the same as the stuff under murder.
What is the cure? It is the Savior Christ who came to His own but was not recognized by them (John 1:10), who opens blind eyes (Mk. 8:22 – 25), who is without sin (Heb. 4:15), whose eyes even now burn like a flame of fire (Rev. 1:14).
He who told us, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8). By this, I believe Jesus means two things:
First, that those seeking purity of heart—whole-hearted devotion to God—these shall be rewarded one day with the gift of seeing God. (O Christ, purify my heart!)
And second, that those whose hearts are pure shall see God’s image in every man, woman, and child. Because it’s there in each, precious, one. (O Christ, purify my heart!)
Lord Jesus, heal us that we may see as You do!
Leave a comment, reflection, or prayer here.
Oh to truly see,
Josh
Oh that the so-called “Christians” who preach hate and condemnation toward those they do not agree with could learn this lesson, and see those people as Jesus sees them……someone who NEEDS the love of Jesus.
I would prefer to think many Christians direct much of the “hate and condemnation ” to which you refer against a particular political notion of “equality” and redifinitions of what iit means to be human. Not to jusrify “hate and condemnation” but it may prove helpful to condemn ideas which have devastating public consequences while at the same time “seeing people as Jesus sees them.”
I never questioned before what it meant for “their eyes to be opened.” It is clear that they saw differently and it made them relate to each other differently. I want to see everyone as Jesus sees them; it is the path to abundant life and true freedom. Thank you for these reflections.
Blessings!